Press Interpreter

06/25/05 -- The threat of Algerian terrorism is starting afresh in France. The intelligence services have revealed, with concern, these last months, that the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (GSPC)* wishes to register their activities as being within the framework of an international djihad (holy war). Today the most structured Islamic organisation in Algeria, the GSPC would have come into contact with the Jordanian djihastistic Abou Moussab Al-Zarkaoui in October 2004 at the latest, who initially was the autonomous head of the group, Unification and Djihad, who pledged allegiance to Ossama Bin Laden and Al-Qaida, and became their leader in Iraq.

On the 14th October 2004, Abdelmalek Droukdal, an explosives specialist, became the head of the GSPC after the death of Nabil Sahraoui in an incursion against the Algerian army in June 2004, sent a communication to Al-Zarkaoui. The missive resembled at the same time an offer of services and a request for aid. Intercepted by the American secret services and transmitted to their French counterparts, it starts by paying homage to the action of Al-Zarkaoui and his men in Iraq. It then follows with a denuciation of France, due to its close cooperation with the Algerian regime and of their support of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The proof of this cooperation was, according to the mail, the implication of France in the liberation of 32 european tourists including 15 Germans, kidnapped in the Sahara in 2003.

As a consequence, Droukdal invites Al-Zarkaoui to include French among the targets for kidnappings in Iraq and keep them as hostage. The GSPC, for its part, set out their intention to exercise pressure on all orders in France, in order to obtain the release of certain of their members imprisoned in Algeria. This would start with Amar Saïfi, "Abderrezak le para," captured by Chadian rebels on 2004, then extradicted by Algeria. He is considered as one of the initiators of the kidnappings of European tourists.

Unknown Movements

The last intelligence from the Algerian special services has revealed that they would have recruited about sixty combatants in Mauritania, the location of the last spectacular operation asserted by the GSPC. On the 3rd June, 15 Mauritanian soldiers and 17 others were wounded in an an attack on a military base in the desert in the north east of the country. It seemed to be in the stule of the Group Mauritanien pour le prêche et le jihad (GMPJ**). The existence of this confirms the Americans' fears that there is an increase in islamist activity more and more vividly in this region.

The new international ambitions of the GSPC are making the object of a lively debate between experts. Their intention appears, however, clearly. On the 11th September 2003, the GSPC announced, in a communication which has never been completely authenticated, that they would be rallying with Al Qaida. In the same month, a Yemeni Al Qaida emissary, came to Algeria in order to further draw closer contacts with the direction of the GSPC, was killed in the course of a military operation. In February 2005, the organisation has, for the first time, given its support to kamikaze operations, confirming what has been found to be the same line as Al-Zarkaoui.

And France? The intention to harm is clear, particularly in the intercepted communication, but the medium and the method remain unknown. In a voice message, dated 18th May, Al-Zarkaoui said about Jaques Chirac. “the dog of crosses, especially when he ordered Muslim women to remove their hidjab (veil)� It would especially cause an effect in Germany. And so the GSPC, the radicalisation of their positions and their agravating intention behind the Algerian front puts France as a potential target. “It is evident that, in their spirit, the global djihad starts at Marseille and finishes at Lille,� predicts a high up French antiterrorism officer, with a sigh, stressing the importance of Algerians in the attacks perpetrated in France in 1995-1996.

The New Generation

Those at the board of territorial surveillance (DST _ direction de la surveillance du territoire) and the general intelligence services (reseignements generaux) also predict the sort of sympatisers of the GSPC or of other Algerian Islamic structures like the GIA, who have recently left prison or will soon be released, after having been convicted in the 1990s by French law. These detainees are often aided by finances sources from contraband trafficking or social security fraud in the Paris region. This confirms, to a lesser extent, the tendency across the rest of the world, the link between religious fundamentalism and criminal activities.

The ten individuals considered amongest the most radical were not softened by their incarceration; on the contrar, they often converted other detainees who had not been practising. Once outside, some of the them regain contact with radical islamic movements. The authorities ought to think of the manner of their neutralisation, their surveillance cannot be completely safe. The problem is posted in particular by French nationals who are not expellable. The idea of stripping them of their nationality has been considered, but it is a very complex procedure.

These veterans of extreme islam often serve as role models for the new generation, whose speed of conversion is equalled only by their extremism. For the first time, some young people aspire to die as martyrs. Examples are significant: for instance Farid Benyettou, 23 years old, the key person implicated in the "Iraq die," whose last episode was his questioning by four men in Limoges and Montpellier on 21st June. Having become the religious counsel to a group of young belivers in the 19th arrondissement district in Paris, Benyettou, was introduced by his brother in laaw, Youcef Zemmouri, a member of a logistical support arm of the GSPC, which had been dismantled in May 1998, the day before the World Cup football had been organised to be in France.

[Full Article]

* Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
** Groupe mauritanien pour le prêche et le jihad

By Piotr Smolar

--Translated by Katherine Apps

This article was translated using the Translation Wiki ( http://www.translationwiki.net ). To see the original text side by side with the translation and to make additions or improvements, go to the Translation Wiki for this article: http://www.translationwiki.net/index2.php?action=trans&type=view&id=18 .

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